Eastern Railroad Discussion > Wall Street Journal on Rule G (alcohol, narcotics, etc)

The WSJ has an article today about the increase in employees found to have traces of narcotics and alcohol in their system. For employees in safety sensitive positions (pilots, bus drivers, etc) the rate of positives went up 10% (from 0.71% to 0.79%, still under 1% of the total sample) in one year.

Of much more concern is the finding that findings of cocaine in post-accident tests were double those of pre-employment testing results. That's consistent with broad testing of more people acknowledging use of drugs in the past month.

WSJ:

"Drug use appears to be higher among the broader American population compared with just workers and job applicants subject to testing. In 2015, 6.5% of Americans ages 26 and older admitted on a government survey that they had used marijuana or hashish in the prior month, according to the National Institutes of Health’s most recent analysis of drug use. Among those 18 to 25 years old, the share climbs to 19.8%.

Another concern for employers is the continuing rise in cocaine positives, particularly in drug tests conducted after workplace accidents. Of U.S. workers tested by Quest, traces of cocaine were found in 0.28% of tests. The share of positives from post accident tests was more than twice as high as the rate from pre-employment assessments."

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State and local rules vary on whether an employee can be terminated for drug use, although transportation employees are subject to a higher authority. As recently as an hour ago I had a conversation with a window installation company owner on this topic. His guys work on scaffolds, and install large, expensive windows, spackle, tape the work etc 30 feet off the ground.

One fellow was rolling some weed on their break. "You're not going to smoke that on the job, are you?" "Yeah" "No, you're not" "Yes, I can." "OK, yes, you can. You don't work here any more. Leave the work site. Pick up your check in the morning."


https://www.wsj.com/articles/more-american-workers-are-testing-positive-for-drugs-1494928980

Yep, and they're introducing a bill for recreational marijuana here in New Jersey....Get ready lawyers!